Reflections on water, tadpoles and barely leaving a wake...

GoldenMotor.com

silverbear

The Boy Who Never Grew Up
Jul 9, 2009
8,325
670
113
northeastern Minnesota
Barely,
This started out as a response to your post this morning, but as I sipped my coffee and first light came to the forest outside my window this 'note' turned into something else. Rather than high jack your thread with a long ramble I'll put it in the tavern, where it is more appropriate.

I think you are wise in taking the pressure off for getting the tadpole on the road sooner rather than when you and the trike are ready. It isn't as if you have nothing to ride. I'm sure the Rollfast is still a pleasure and a head turner. It is also pretty obvious that you are stretching yourself as a builder and that this machine of yours has consumed vast quantities of creative staring, coffee, time, dreaming in your sleep, daydreaming at work and considerable cash outlay even while watching your budget. Much creative energy has flowed into it with fine result. It is rolling, functional art and not just something to ride around on.

Whoever you are, Mr. Barelyawake, you have reached inside to find the best you can of yourself to offer up to this visionary enterprise. I know that it has been a great learning experience. It has for those of us just sitting back and watching this mechanical flower unfold into the light. It keeps becoming something more than it was and as you have wisely observed, once the motor goes "vrooom" and you ride off into the sunset there is no coming back.

I did not know anything of this joy in dreaming and scheming a build until I had done enough of it to realize that it now has less to do with the riding than it does with seeing something in my mind's eye and then bringing it manifest into the world... and one day starting it up and riding off on it. I've been making things with my hands since I was a boy, but nothing remotely compares to these offerings to the God of Two Wheeled Fun (three in your case).

But where do you go after this? How can another build satisfy something more than your Rollfast or this three wheeled wonder? Maybe you can. I hope you can if that is right for you.

For myself, I think I'm coming to the end of this chapter in my own stint as a bike builder. When my convertible Indian Hiawatha is done finally (another year at least before it is really "done" with the tri-car setup) I will have the light motorcycle I pretended my bicycle was with playing cards against the spokes six decades ago. I wanted to grow up and have an Indian motorcycle with a sidecar one day and by this time next year I will be riding it, having come full circle. I might keep winter tinkering with old mopeds, getting them running if I can turn a dime doing that, or build something strictly to sell, but the middle of the night dreaming and excitement of getting going in the morning on "the build" is ending. And I'm ready for that.

The shift now is from land to the water. Like you, I am a waterman. I started canoeing by myself at six, had my own boat at seven with a 2 1/2 hsp Martin on it and have been in love with northern Minnesota lakes ever since. Now I find myself dreaming about a houseboat made from an old pontoon boat, with a little cabin on it big enough for an old fellow and an Aaniimoosh The Wonder Dog. In my mind's eye I can see a Grumman canoe sail fitted up to a slight bow extension for catching the wind and riding free. In back are two old 10 horse Evinrudes with the upper water cooled engines removed and air cooled 5.5 hsp vertical shaft four strokes from Harbor Freight fitted atop for motor power.

Huck Finn all growed up and old, spending his summer on a big fresh water lake fishing, swimming and lolling about, a twelve year old truant cleverly disguised as an old man. I long for this. My spirit calls for this.

So it is what I find myself dreaming about at night and no longer motors on bicycles. I pay attention to my dreams and intuitions. For me it is the source of spiritual guidance. At the core I am not a mechanic or an artisan of any kind. I am a Native American pipe carrier and that is my center of gravity as a spiritual being struggling with the business of temporarily being human.

There will be a motorbike on deck of course, for rides to town for supplies and socializing when the hermit's life is found to be lacking. I will have my laptop and look in on the boys here to see what is cooking, and to say hi. I'll have time then to do a thread on how to fabricate the copper jewel light, something I never seem to have the time for.

We are each of us on a journey. I can see a change coming in mine and wish you all good things on yours, my friend, as I do for all of you brothers and sisters in the wind who read this note. I suspect that sometime down the road you will once again see water and a boat will drift into your dreams, if it is not there already. Peace be with you, Geof. Thanks for sharing your wonderful build and for all you do here as a moderator. I wish you smooth sailing with barely a wake...
Silverbear
 

scotto-

Custom 4-Stroke Bike Builder
Jun 3, 2010
6,505
24
38
Ridin' inSane Diego, CA.
Thank you for sharing this Silverbear. Surrounded by water, from the lakes to the oceans, my playground as a child (and still), on a boat powered by the water itself......


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scotto-